Actions taken:
If YES, please describe the actions taken (including challenges encountered if there is any) and provide concrete examples (including written reports, programme information, photos and videos*)
Top 3 headlines
- BRC has worked in partnership with several European National Societies to develop projects which integrate policies, systems or mechanisms that address SGBV in armed conflict, disasters and other humanitarian situations.
- BRC has been using its specialist knowledge in International Humanitarian Law and humanitarian response to conduct research, share learning and carry-out awareness raising on SGBV with a wide range of actors, including the UK government, Commonwealth states, national and local civil society actors and with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- BRC has been integrating a safer and more appropriate response to SGBV within some of its existing and some new projects, both in the UK and within international programmes. Much more still needs to be done to mainstream effectively across-the-board, but significant steps have been made, including: provision of cash assistance to over 600 survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, training on access to services and SGBV rights for 60 vulnerable female migrants in the UK, and training of 110 BRC staff on the provision of psycho-social support (PSS) to SGBV survivors.
Reporting against the commitments
- a) Raise awareness of the issues, including the causes and effects, of sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict, disasters and other emergencies, through dissemination of and training in international humanitarian law and/or other humanitarian education activities;
The British Red Cross has been working to raise awareness of the issues of SGBV in armed conflict, disasters and other emergencies through various humanitarian education activities for the development and strengthening of national institutions, local actors and community-based initiatives. In June 2016, the BRC held a joint seminar with the Commonwealth Secretariat on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), this included a session on addressing SGBV in armed conflicts and disasters. In addition, BRC helped to integrate SGBV into the agenda and outcomes of the 5th Commonwealth Red Cross and Red Crescent IHL Conference that took place in Kigali in June 2019. The BRC has supported the UK Government to produce a Voluntary Report on the Implementation of IHL at the Domestic Level containing a section on measures taken to address sexual violence in conflict. In June 2019, BRC chaired an NGO Military Contact Group meeting on SGBV and commitments within the UK’s Women Peace and Security national action plan. Participants included representatives from the Ministry of Defence, DfID and various UK-based NGOs.
- Work together, as appropriate, to raise awareness of the issues of sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict, disasters and other emergencies, and the policies, systems, and mechanisms necessary to prevent and mitigate this violence;
- Explore opportunities to share lessons and knowledge learnt through responding to sexual violence in times of conflict that may be applicable to other situations, such as disasters and other humanitarian emergencies;
The British Red Cross has worked in partnership with other EU National Societies to support National Societies in countries affected by armed conflict or other humanitarian contexts to establish community-based mechanisms to prevent and mitigate SGBV through sensitisation and behaviour change. This included a partnership with the Red Cross of Central African Republic (CAR) and the French Red Cross to develop and implement a community-based SGBV prevention project. The BRC has also supported the Guinea Red Cross in partnership with the Danish and Swiss Red Cross on a project addressing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, including the potential risks of female genital mutilation (FGM). The approach involved working with a wide range of local stakeholders, including youth, traditional cutters, leaders and midwives. In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, BRC has started integrating SGBV into a Vulnerability to Resilience project in partnership with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the German and Swedish Red Cross, to strengthen and integrate response to trafficking and SGBV. BRC has also been working in a consortium with the Italian and Swedish Red Cross on the EU focused ‘Safe Women in Migration’ (SWIM) project funded by the European Commission. As part of this project BRC has contributed to the production of a Toolkit for front-line staff working across the sector to support their capacity to prevent and respond to SGBV; as part of the project 450 professionals will be trained across 5 countries.
BRC has been sharing lessons and raising awareness within the UK and across the Movement, drawing upon SGBV focussed research carried out in a variety of humanitarian contexts. In May 2016, the British Red Cross and the ICRC held a public event in London entitled “Local to International: Responding to SGBV in Crises and Conflict. The event was attended by Baroness Anelay, the then UK Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) and humanitarian professionals and explored the humanitarian system and its response to the issue. The IFRC report Unseen, Unheard, which looks at the specific dynamics, gaps and recommendations for responding to SGBV in disasters, was also disseminated at this event. In 2017, the British Red Cross produced two policy papers based on evaluations of our programmes in DRC and Guinea: ‘Silent Emergency: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Guinea’ and ‘Silent Emergency: Survivors of Sexual Violence in DRC: Social and economic re-integration through cash transfers’. Both reports provided recommendations for improved programmatic responses to SGBV and were shared within the Movement-wide Gender & Diversity Network and utilized in communications with the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office department on Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) and with interested Parliamentarians. BRC is currently working with the ICRC to conduct research into mandatory reporting for survivors of sexual violence in conflict and the impacts this has on health seeking behaviour.
BRC within its auxiliary capacity to the UK government has been raising awareness on policies, systems and mechanisms to prevent and mitigate SGBV for vulnerable migrants and people living in the UK who have fled conflict, disaster, violence and exploitation. BRC has provided recommendations for inclusion of migrant women during consultations on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill; and also produced the report, Hope for the Future: Support for survivors of trafficking after the National Referral Mechanism, which highlights the need for improved support to survivors of trafficking, including gender-sensitive services for SGBV survivors. As of June 2019, BRC has been a member of the UK’s National Asylum Stakeholder’s Forum Equality Sub Group focused on highlighting the needs and safety of women and girls in the UK asylum support system including GBV prevention and response. In the UK, BRC co-produced with migrant women’s organisations, a Toolkit to enable migrant women to facilitate peer-to-peer sessions on SGBV rights and pathways to access assistance; by October 2019, 60 refugee/asylum seeking women will have attended workshops on rights and pathways to support in the context of SGBV. In September 2019, BRC will carry out training for accommodation providers within the UK asylum reception system to help them recognize and respond appropriately to cases of SGBV. In January 2020, BRC will host a UK national conference on SGBV and migrant women with the aim of bringing the two sectors working on violence against women and girls (VAWG) and vulnerable migrants together to share good practice, focus on prevention and develop shared advocacy and policy positions.
- f) Continue supporting prevention and response activities related to sexual and gender based violence.
The British Red Cross has been steadily increasing its support to victims of sexual and gender-based violence. This includes a few stand-alone projects as well as integration into other programmes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have been working in partnership with the ICRC to provide a social safety net to over 600 survivors of sexual violence. In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, we have been working with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the German and Swedish Red Cross and IFRC to strengthen and integrate response to trafficking and SGBV. We are supporting the IFRC to run a 12 month SGBV pilot project in Indonesia and the Philippines and we have also recruited a staff member to build the capacity of 6 National Societies working on the UK funded Action for Migrants: Route-based Assistance (AMiRA) programme to ensure safe and appropriate identification and referral of SGBV victims/survivors along the migration trail in West and North Africa. In the UK, we work with many vulnerable migrants, including asylum seekers, refugees and victims of trafficking, who have fled violence, conflict and disaster or who have faced violence and exploitation within their migration journey. We have been integrating the needs of victims/survivors of sexual and gender-based violence into some of our projects, including within the EU funded SWIM and STEP (the sustainable integration of trafficked human beings through proactive identification and enhanced protection) projects. Through the STEP project, we found that 64% of the trafficking survivors had also been victims of sexual exploitation. In addition, BRC established the fourth ‘Women in Crisis’ specialist casework service within our Refugee Support Directorate in the UK, to improve provision of holistic, gender sensitive and trauma informed casework support to women who have suffered or are at risk of gender-based violence.
Challenges
- A lack of human resources, institutional capacity and tools posed a challenge, especially at the beginning of the reporting period. While some of this has been addressed through training and tools development, human resourcing continues to pose a challenge, including with the recruitment of a humanitarian SGBV adviser for our international programmes taking longer than expected.
- Some British Red Cross initiatives to mainstream SGBV into international programmes has been challenging due to social and cultural reluctance faced by some National Societies to explicitly address aspects of SGBV.
- Internationally the existence of mandatory reporting to the police for cases of sexual violence, in some contexts, has put pressure on partners on how to maintain anonymity of victims/survivors.
- Establishing partnerships and coordinating across National Societies has been a challenge within certain programmes.
- Staff and volunteer awareness on SGBV as well as mainstreaming across all aspects of programming could be strengthened. This would be facilitated by stronger reporting and data collection to help understand incidences of SGBV, identify people at risk and monitor and improve our responses and the responses of partners.
- Financial restrictions and budgeting have meant that capacity strengthening on SGBV and mainstreaming activities lack funding both within UK operations and within specific international projects.
- While a lot of great steps have been taken by the IFRC and the SGBV Working Group to develop training and capacity-strengthening tools, more could still be done to help facilitate Movement-wide capacity building and promote complementary modes of working.
Photo and extended caption
64% of the trafficking survivors supported by the STEP UK project have experienced sexual exploitation. The majority were asylum seekers or refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries. 17 different nationalities were supported with the majority from Nigeria and Albania. British Red Cross, Ashiana and Hestia continue to work in partnership to support survivors of trafficking in the UK. Photo credit: Finnish Red Cross
